Kevin Durant Rumors

[Coolbreeze44]

Hey Monster and Lip, isn't it about time for you two to discuss next years' 14th and 15th man?

I hope wherever you are there are some clouds to yell at!

Hahahahaha, variable cloudiness today

[Coolbreeze44]

Hey Monster and Lip, isn't it about time for you two to discuss next years' 14th and 15th man?

lol. I think so, Cool. Monster, can you lead off?

Nah, nah, nah, it's going to need it's own thread because you guys will run it up to over 50 pages.

[Lipoli390]

Hey Monster and Lip, isn't it about time for you two to discuss next years' 14th and 15th man?

lol. I think so, Cool. Monster, can you lead off?

Nah, nah, nah, it's going to need it's own thread because you guys will run it up to over 50 pages.

I think we can keep it to 49.

[Monster]

lol. I think so, Cool. Monster, can you lead off?

Nah, nah, nah, it's going to need it's own thread because you guys will run it up to over 50 pages.

I think we can keep it to 49.

I think we will only go to like 46 pages because Cool won't let us even discuss the 2-way players. Booooooooo!!!!!

[Monster]

A 2 year extension with Minnesota has already been agreed to by KD and his camp, deal is done

Is your source Cam? When I put "Kevin Durant" into the Twitter search I saw he threw a trade out there.

[BloopOracle]

Sportsbooks just moved Minnesota to a heavy favorite

https://x.com/esidery/status/1933694816 ... v8Oig&s=19

[Coolbreeze44]

Sportsbooks just moved Minnesota to a heavy favorite

https://x.com/esidery/status/1933694816 ... v8Oig&s=19

Beat me to it Bloop. Looks like this is going to get done.

[Lipoli390]

I think we all agree that the Wolves championship aspirations are tied to a team built around Ant and Jaden. Against that backdrop, the central premise for acquiring Durant seems to be based on the view that we have a limited window to win a championship built around those two. That premise, in turn, assumes we shouldn’t rely on our newest young talent - TSJ, Dilly and Clark - to win during the Ant/Jaden window. My first thought is that, even if the premise is correct, just looking at the numbers (his age, games missed, defensive metrics and lack of team success over the past five years) Durant is not the answer to getting over the hump in the near term. At the same time, I think the premise is fundamentally flawed for several reasons:

First, the premise doesn’t seem to recognize how young Ant and Jaden are or the length of their contracts. Ant and Jaden will be 24 and 25 years old respectively. They likely won’t peak as players for another two to three seasons. MJ was 28 and Pippen 26 when they first made the NBA finals. Steph Curry was 27. SGA was 26 this season in his first finals appearance. Given that Ant is our clear #1, it doesn’t make sense to take a huge short-term swing at least 2-3 years before Ant reaches his peak Mover, both Ant and Jaden have 4 years left on their contracts after which the Wolves will have their Bird rights. So they’re not going anywhere for at least 4 more seasons. I’ll add that Naz will be only 26 next season and the Wolves are positioned to sign him to a long-term deal this summer. Therefore, the Wolves are very well positioned for a strong 4-year run with their proven young core guys.

Second, the premise doesn’t seem to recognize how quickly new young players can contribute substantially to the success of a championship contender. If nothing else, this year’s NBA finals tell us they can. The Pacers’ rotation includes the 3rd-season 25 old Nembhard who averaged 29 minutes per game, the 3rd-season 22 year old Mathurin (30 minutes per game), and the 2nd-season 22 year old Ben Sheppard (19.5 minutes). The Thunder’s #2 option was 3rd-season 24 year old Jalen Williams. Their rotation also included 2nd-season 23 year old Holmgren (27.4 minutes), 2nd season 21 year old Cason Wallace (27.6 minutes), 4th season 26 year old Aaron Wiggins, and 3rd season 22 year old Jaylin Williams. Next season we’ll have a 25 year old TSJ in his 2nd season, 3rd season 24 year old Clark and 2nd season 20 year old Dillingham. There’s good reason to believe that one, two or all three will become key positive rotation contributors starting next season and more so the season after that and beyond — well before the end of the current Ant and Jaden contracts.

Third, the Wolves have two valuable draft picks this summer. They can use one or both to draft an experienced 3 or 4 year college player or trade them as part of a deal for a rotation vet under or at least not much more than 30 year old so they’re in their still in their prime when Ant and Jaden hit their prime years.

Let’s not forget that we made it to the Western Conference Finals this year. The natural development of Ant and Jaden alone, with no other changes, should make us a better team next season and even better the following season. Another full season of this same team playing together (with or without Randle) should make for better team play on the court. So my message to TC, which he would obviously ignore, would be to stop chasing 37-year old stars as if there’s no tomorrow. There are, in fact, at least 4 years of tomorrows and it will probably be a couple years before our star hits his prime. It’s fine to focus on the here and now after getting the Conference Finals. But I don’t believe running it back, perhaps without Randle, is necessarily conceding the here and now. We can focus on the now but we need to have our eye on the near future when our key core guys will be peaking and in sync with teammates they’ve been playing with for several seasons.

[Lipoli390]

Sportsbooks just moved Minnesota to a heavy favorite

https://x.com/esidery/status/1933694816 ... v8Oig&s=19

Beat me to it Bloop. Looks like this is going to get done.

The oddsmakers tend to be right, especially when you see a big change like this. So I think it’s a forgone conclusion the Wolves will end up with Kevin Durant. The only question is what the Wolves will end up giving up to get him. I hope I’m wrong about TC’s inclination to overpay but I fear the worst.

I’ll be furious if it turns out we gave up any of the following: Jaden McDaniels, TSJ, Dillingham, Naz Reid or Jaylen Clark. And I’ll be really unhappy if we gave up both our picks.

[Q-is-here]

Sportsbooks just moved Minnesota to a heavy favorite

https://x.com/esidery/status/1933694816 ... v8Oig&s=19

So you really are an Oracle!